Ok, I was overreacting. But, to be fair, the solution was not obvious to anybody and it was nowhere to be found in our mound of papers/information. D called our agency and the solution is almost laughable. Because getting the various people who signed various forms to visit a notary is just not going to happen, we can simply write a statement at the bottom of the form or on the back that says, "I attest that this is the signature of ...." and then we can sign. The notary can then notarize OUR signature to that statement. Oh, how I love silly loopholes! (Except for when I don't think of them first....)
I was worried that even if that works in the states, it might not work here where rules are set in stone and friendly loopholes are all but nonexistent. I called a different Notar this morning. (Yeah, the other one permanently lost my business by being so rude after I had such a tough time getting there in the first place) This time, I got to speak to the actual Notar so I can trust the information! A MAJOR plus!! His English was great and we were able to fully understand each other, which is another HUGE plus! I explained that many of the people who signed would not be able to go there and told him what our agency said and asked if we could do that. He had no problem with it at all! He said that all he could do was notarize a signature of someone that was in the office and that he could certainly notarize our signatures to that statement. Yay!!! I wanted to make sure I knew how to do the next step of certifying and he said that he could actually do that for us and it would likely only take 2 days! Hooray!! He said it would be best to come in this afternoon so he can get everything done before he goes on vacation for 2 weeks. Even better since I was wanting all of this done weeks ago! The sooner, the better!! We have an appointment for an oil change this afternoon too, so I'm really hoping they are on time and can get it changed quickly. (Germans might have a reputation for punctuality, but it has NOT been my experience!) As soon as the oil change is done, we can head downtown and get a MAJOR source of sleeplessness on my part taken care of! Yay!!
As if that wasn't good enough news, my mom also got our birth certificates and marriage license and mailed those to our agency yesterday, so those are done. AND, our home study agency went ahead and sent our addendum to the USCIS too! She said that she would send my copy and the placing agency's copy once she received my check, but that she didn't want us to have to wait any longer for the USCIS! I know we aren't quite Dossier ready yet, but we are so close and it feels GREAT!! :-)
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
A New Nightmare
I am still in the heat of the emotions of the moment, so hopefully I am blowing this entirely out of proportion. I REALLY hope!!
This morning, I rushed through my weekly grocery shopping trip, threw the cold food in the fridge, and drove to the notary. It should have been an easy 20 minute on the Autobahn. It ended up being an hour-long drive that started on the Autobahn, but ended going every which way "through town" after a ridiculously long "Stau" (My favorite German word - means any form of traffic congestion, jam, etc.) So, I was already a little stressed when N & I made it to the Notar, but I was determined to make the best of it. We found the place rather easily thanks to our GPS, and we even got lucky enough to find a FREE parking lot nearby! I know that seems like no big deal to you in the states, but here that is a HUGE deal!! Like, the rough equivalent to "driving 90 past a state trooper on the interstate and having him wave and tell you to have a nice day" huge! (I would add "through construction", but that might be a tiny exaggeration....) I got N into his stroller and enjoyed a nice walk along the tiny sidewalk that is right next to a busy road....Ok, I was a little freaked out by that, but I also acknowledged that the Germans don't ever do stupid things like drive on sidewalks....well, not with people on them anyways. /rant
After our lovely 5-10 minute walk, we entered the building and discovered that the Notar was on the 2nd floor. (That means 2 flights of stairs here, not 1) I saw a sign that said there was an elevator, but I couldn't tell where it was indicating and there were more stairs where I thought it said to go, so I assumed I wasn't reading it right. I collapsed the stroller and carried it up the stairs while holding N & my folder of documents in the other arm. And it was my bulky stroller. I hadn't even thought to bring the umbrella stroller in case of steps! D'oh!! Anyways, we made it and once there, I re-strapped N into the stroller to keep him contained so he didn't destroy an office. The receptionist spoke very little English and basically had no idea what I was asking for. (Um, hello...you are a Notar! People come to you to get things Notarized!) She went and gave my pile to someone else (not the actual Notar), who eventually came out and asked me what I wanted from them. I explained that I needed all of the documents notarized, so that we could get them certified, then authenticated and that all of this was for an adoption. She just stared through me. Finally, she said that she didn't know what I needed. She said that she could either make certified copies of the documents or she could notarize the signatures, but that every person who signed our documents would have to physically come into their office. I explained that we had to have originals, but that most of the people who had signed would not be able to come to their office. Heck, 2 of the signatures are from IL!! She didn't care.
I see her point, but this is just so frustrating!! Most of the signatures (our Dr. and the lady who certified translations of our police reports), have stamps over them which are supposed to verify that they are valid signatures. Apparently, those mean nothing. The process of having to get everything notarized, then certified, then authenticated (twice!) was already daunting enough, but having to get so many people to physically travel to this office during there insanely short & inconvenient business hours is just not possible! I mean, how many doctors do you know who would be willing to leave their practice for half of a day, then drive 20 minutes each way just to say ,"Yes, I signed that...you know, right UNDER MY STAMP!" It's just unheard of! I have been trying for the last hour to call the Crescent Moon Embassy to see if this step is actually important or if we can somehow get around it, but they still won't answer the phone. Tonight, I will have D call our placing agency and try to relay what it going on and see if they can think of a solution, but I have a feeling they are just going to say that we have to figure it out on our own. :-( As easy as it is to get things notarized in the states, I never would've thought that we would have such a hard time doing this step here. I am hoping to have some positive news about this soon....
This morning, I rushed through my weekly grocery shopping trip, threw the cold food in the fridge, and drove to the notary. It should have been an easy 20 minute on the Autobahn. It ended up being an hour-long drive that started on the Autobahn, but ended going every which way "through town" after a ridiculously long "Stau" (My favorite German word - means any form of traffic congestion, jam, etc.) So, I was already a little stressed when N & I made it to the Notar, but I was determined to make the best of it. We found the place rather easily thanks to our GPS, and we even got lucky enough to find a FREE parking lot nearby! I know that seems like no big deal to you in the states, but here that is a HUGE deal!! Like, the rough equivalent to "driving 90 past a state trooper on the interstate and having him wave and tell you to have a nice day" huge! (I would add "through construction", but that might be a tiny exaggeration....) I got N into his stroller and enjoyed a nice walk along the tiny sidewalk that is right next to a busy road....Ok, I was a little freaked out by that, but I also acknowledged that the Germans don't ever do stupid things like drive on sidewalks....well, not with people on them anyways. /rant
After our lovely 5-10 minute walk, we entered the building and discovered that the Notar was on the 2nd floor. (That means 2 flights of stairs here, not 1) I saw a sign that said there was an elevator, but I couldn't tell where it was indicating and there were more stairs where I thought it said to go, so I assumed I wasn't reading it right. I collapsed the stroller and carried it up the stairs while holding N & my folder of documents in the other arm. And it was my bulky stroller. I hadn't even thought to bring the umbrella stroller in case of steps! D'oh!! Anyways, we made it and once there, I re-strapped N into the stroller to keep him contained so he didn't destroy an office. The receptionist spoke very little English and basically had no idea what I was asking for. (Um, hello...you are a Notar! People come to you to get things Notarized!) She went and gave my pile to someone else (not the actual Notar), who eventually came out and asked me what I wanted from them. I explained that I needed all of the documents notarized, so that we could get them certified, then authenticated and that all of this was for an adoption. She just stared through me. Finally, she said that she didn't know what I needed. She said that she could either make certified copies of the documents or she could notarize the signatures, but that every person who signed our documents would have to physically come into their office. I explained that we had to have originals, but that most of the people who had signed would not be able to come to their office. Heck, 2 of the signatures are from IL!! She didn't care.
I see her point, but this is just so frustrating!! Most of the signatures (our Dr. and the lady who certified translations of our police reports), have stamps over them which are supposed to verify that they are valid signatures. Apparently, those mean nothing. The process of having to get everything notarized, then certified, then authenticated (twice!) was already daunting enough, but having to get so many people to physically travel to this office during there insanely short & inconvenient business hours is just not possible! I mean, how many doctors do you know who would be willing to leave their practice for half of a day, then drive 20 minutes each way just to say ,"Yes, I signed that...you know, right UNDER MY STAMP!" It's just unheard of! I have been trying for the last hour to call the Crescent Moon Embassy to see if this step is actually important or if we can somehow get around it, but they still won't answer the phone. Tonight, I will have D call our placing agency and try to relay what it going on and see if they can think of a solution, but I have a feeling they are just going to say that we have to figure it out on our own. :-( As easy as it is to get things notarized in the states, I never would've thought that we would have such a hard time doing this step here. I am hoping to have some positive news about this soon....
Friday, June 22, 2012
German documents
Today, we finally received our certified translations of our local police clearances in the mail. Then, I took all 3 kids (the Kindergarten had the day off, probably because of the big UEFA game) back to the doctor to get his signatures/stamps on more forms. The last forms he filled out, he accidentally spelled our last names wrong. Oops! But, he was more than willing to sign new ones, so we now officially have EVERYTHING we need to go to the local notary. Crazy as I am, I am actually tempted to drive there will all 3 kids in tow without D to get this done so we can move on to the next step! But, since I spent the morning essentially dragging them all around town running various errands, I think maybe I will wait until Monday morning. The benefit of waiting until then is that DJ & L will be in Kindergarten, so I will only have to keep N entertained while the Notary does his thing. I am one of those people that wants to do things as soon as I can possibly do them, so here's what I am telling myself to keep patient. (This may or may not be true, but it has at least an 85% chance of being true and that's good enough for me) If we went to the Notary right now and got everything notarized right now, it would be very stressful for myself & the kids, then we would still have to wait until Monday to go wherever it is that we need to go to get them certified because they are most likely closed already. So, if I wait until Monday, it will be less stressful AND we can probably go ahead and get them certified that same day and be no worse off than if I went and got them Notarized now! Now, if Monday would just hurry up and get here! :-P
In other news, our home study agency has written our addendum to correct the problem that the USCIS has with our original home study. They will be getting that notarized next week and mailing it to the USCIS as soon as they received the check that I just mailed today. I hope the USCIS officer will accept an addendum instead of requiring a completely new home study. The home study agency seemed confident that they would, so I will just have to take their word for it since they would know better than me!
Things are moving along and I couldn't be more excited!! DJ and L have been extremely interested in all of the details lately and they are getting more and more excited to meet their new little sister. I love their excitement and interest! DJ is even more adorable lately. He wants to pray that God would heal her of her blindness, but he wants me to let him be the first one to pray for her. He's got such faith and I would LOVE to see God meet that faith with a miracle! :-D
In other news, our home study agency has written our addendum to correct the problem that the USCIS has with our original home study. They will be getting that notarized next week and mailing it to the USCIS as soon as they received the check that I just mailed today. I hope the USCIS officer will accept an addendum instead of requiring a completely new home study. The home study agency seemed confident that they would, so I will just have to take their word for it since they would know better than me!
Things are moving along and I couldn't be more excited!! DJ and L have been extremely interested in all of the details lately and they are getting more and more excited to meet their new little sister. I love their excitement and interest! DJ is even more adorable lately. He wants to pray that God would heal her of her blindness, but he wants me to let him be the first one to pray for her. He's got such faith and I would LOVE to see God meet that faith with a miracle! :-D
Friday, June 15, 2012
I-800A RFE
Our placing agency notified us that they received an RFE (Request for Evidence) from our USCIS agent. Surprisingly, this is pretty good news. And, just like my dream, I'm really calm about it. Our home study had approved us for Z, but the USCIS agent did not like that it was for a specific child and wanted it to be for a certain type of child. Easy to fix! And, there was no mention of needing any "letter" from Germany, so I'm quite excited about that! I have emailed our home study contact about the necessary change and I haven't heard back yet, but this is where the time zones are against me. I *hope* to have heard something by tonight or tomorrow at the latest, because it sounds like once that is corrected and sent in, we will get our approval and can move to the next step! I am so glad God gave me that dream last week about us getting an RFE and me being totally at peace about it, because when I read those letters in the email, I didn't freak out like I probably would have without that assurance of peace. :-)
We also got our letter from D's work, so the only thing we are waiting on is a translation of our German police reports, then we can start notarizing, etc.. D is still trying to get in touch with the right people at his former language school to find out how much it will cost. I will never get used to how SLOW and painful stuff like that is here! The good news is that we are making progress every day it seems! It won't be long now and we might actually have an estimated travel time frame, which I am dying to know! Once we have an idea of when we will travel, we can figure out what we're going to do with DJ, L, and N while we get Z. I would like them to come with us and get to see Crescent Moon, but D doesn't want to worry about them having jet lag and potentially misbehaving in a foreign country, especially during any official adoption procedures! Depending on when we can go there, we might ask family to come watch them in Germany or possibly have family meet us in Crescent Moon to watch over them during official stuff. D has also considered sending the kids to America to stay with family there, but the idea of them being on a plane by themselves is just too much for me, but it doesn't make sense for us to fly to America, then Crescent Moon, then back to America, then to Germany again. But, we've got time to get all of that figured out! I would also love to be able to attend my best friend's wedding in September, but I don't want to book tickets until I know whether or not I will even be able to make it. Everything will work out in the end and it isn't worth worrying about when I don't even know details yet.
We also got our letter from D's work, so the only thing we are waiting on is a translation of our German police reports, then we can start notarizing, etc.. D is still trying to get in touch with the right people at his former language school to find out how much it will cost. I will never get used to how SLOW and painful stuff like that is here! The good news is that we are making progress every day it seems! It won't be long now and we might actually have an estimated travel time frame, which I am dying to know! Once we have an idea of when we will travel, we can figure out what we're going to do with DJ, L, and N while we get Z. I would like them to come with us and get to see Crescent Moon, but D doesn't want to worry about them having jet lag and potentially misbehaving in a foreign country, especially during any official adoption procedures! Depending on when we can go there, we might ask family to come watch them in Germany or possibly have family meet us in Crescent Moon to watch over them during official stuff. D has also considered sending the kids to America to stay with family there, but the idea of them being on a plane by themselves is just too much for me, but it doesn't make sense for us to fly to America, then Crescent Moon, then back to America, then to Germany again. But, we've got time to get all of that figured out! I would also love to be able to attend my best friend's wedding in September, but I don't want to book tickets until I know whether or not I will even be able to make it. Everything will work out in the end and it isn't worth worrying about when I don't even know details yet.
Friday, June 8, 2012
No News is Good News....Right?
We still have not heard anything from the USCIS. I am torn about this. I can't decide whether to start getting excited that we are likely going to be approved or whether to worry that our documents will expire because it will take us so long to fulfill a request for evidence. I have spent more time than I care to think about trying to get an idea of how long people generally have to wait to get their approvals and it really just seems to depend on which agent they get. Some people have gotten approvals 28 days later and others have waited 63 for a Request for Evidence! I don't like such widely different time frames and not knowing which one we will be closer to. Wednesday, I woke up feeling very discouraged in general and was just pessimistic about everything in general. Luckily those days don't happen often, but the stress of everything just sort of hit me all at once that day. That afternoon when I was trying to stay numb and not think about any of the things I constantly think about (especially about the adoption!), I had a thought flood my mind. I got a very strong impression that the agent in charge of our case was finalizing our approval notice and putting the last seals on everything so it could get mailed soon. That really turned my day around! I pray that it is true!! Of course, the next night I dreamt that we got an RFE (Request for Evidence) and had to go about getting a letter from Germany.... I pray that one isn't true! Though, in that dream, I was able to remain calm, so if we do get at RFE, I will take the calm with it. ;-)
In other news, we are trying to get certified translations of our local police reports. I got a quote from a lady just down the street. Oh man!! 60 Euros is for the certification itself and I understand that. She said there was an extra 19% on top of that for the VAT, but it was my understanding that the VAT was included. No way to argue that one though. :-\ The police reports contain about 83 German words, most of which are basic enough that even I know them. She is going to charge us about 40 Euros for the translation! I am not ok with that. It's 98 cents per "line" and she's charging for 42 lines. There are 2 reports (one for me and one for my husband), so maybe she means 21 lines per report. BUT, the German words are all identical. The only things that are different are the names and birthdays and those don't need translated! And, even still, 21 lines seems excessive. So, D is contacting his former German language teacher because the business that she works for also offers certified translations. We are hoping that they can do it for a much more reasonable fee, especially considering how much money they have made teaching him German! Aside from that, we are still waiting. Waiting to receive a few more things in the mail so that we can begin the notarization, certification, and double authentication process. Then we will mail those to our agency and wait some more. I think the general theme of adoptions is "hurry up and wait"! lol! I am hoping to get things moving so I can stop checking my mailbox 17 times per day! (Seriously, I've gotten a bit neurotic about checking for mail....it might be a problem....) Not to mention, I want to find out more about Z and I have found a great support system that seems like they can probably fill me in on a lot of information and possibly even get me in touch with her foster family. (See, I didn't even know she HAD a foster family until I found this group! Now I know she does, but I can't find out who yet) I can't make contact with anyone until we have our approval. Then, the emails can start flying! ;-)
In other news, we are trying to get certified translations of our local police reports. I got a quote from a lady just down the street. Oh man!! 60 Euros is for the certification itself and I understand that. She said there was an extra 19% on top of that for the VAT, but it was my understanding that the VAT was included. No way to argue that one though. :-\ The police reports contain about 83 German words, most of which are basic enough that even I know them. She is going to charge us about 40 Euros for the translation! I am not ok with that. It's 98 cents per "line" and she's charging for 42 lines. There are 2 reports (one for me and one for my husband), so maybe she means 21 lines per report. BUT, the German words are all identical. The only things that are different are the names and birthdays and those don't need translated! And, even still, 21 lines seems excessive. So, D is contacting his former German language teacher because the business that she works for also offers certified translations. We are hoping that they can do it for a much more reasonable fee, especially considering how much money they have made teaching him German! Aside from that, we are still waiting. Waiting to receive a few more things in the mail so that we can begin the notarization, certification, and double authentication process. Then we will mail those to our agency and wait some more. I think the general theme of adoptions is "hurry up and wait"! lol! I am hoping to get things moving so I can stop checking my mailbox 17 times per day! (Seriously, I've gotten a bit neurotic about checking for mail....it might be a problem....) Not to mention, I want to find out more about Z and I have found a great support system that seems like they can probably fill me in on a lot of information and possibly even get me in touch with her foster family. (See, I didn't even know she HAD a foster family until I found this group! Now I know she does, but I can't find out who yet) I can't make contact with anyone until we have our approval. Then, the emails can start flying! ;-)
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